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Saturday, October 6, 2007

Making Peace with Anna

Anna is the neighbor who I may have falsely accused (I realize now) in a previous post of taking items off the clothesline. We were coming home from school Friday around 4pm and she was outside. We said hi and exchanged greetings (in Italian) and then she told us that she had a room to rent and did we want to see it. At first we said no but she insisted and then I realized I could see what was on the other side of the “green door” that is next to our dining room window where we see her entering and leaving. Basically I was nosey. So she took us through the door (which turns out to be a back entrance to her house and several other houses) through a small garden and into her kitchen. The back of our house is one large wall of the garden (though strangely we have no windows on that side of the house.) Then we saw the room. It was nice but I wouldn’t rent it. For 320 euro, you get a nice big room with beautiful furniture but you share a bathroom with the family. If you want to use the kitchen, then its 380 per month. I guess it would be a good deal for a student who only needs to sleep and wash-up once a day. But I like to relax and lounge around my living space and I don’t think I could do it there. Anna’s daughter was watching TV in the living room (right next to the bedroom) and that would be nonstarter for me. I hate TV noise. Anyway it was nice to talk to Anna and we told her (in broken Italian) that we would pass the information on to another person at the school who we knew was looking for an apartment. Peace with the neighbor is a good thing. The next day she was out painting something or other and was giving Mark advice about which windows to make sure were closed for safety reasons.

2 comments:

  1. UnknownJanuary 15, 2011 at 5:25 PM

    HAHAHA!!! ROFLMAO!! I sure hope you get this. First....my wife and I now live in the Via Del Canneto apartment! I found your blog by deciding to Google the infamous Hoover Ladytropic HX44S to see if...by chance...we could figure out how to get a washer/drier to actually (foolish me) DRY THE CLOTHES! We sure have had a wonderful time reading all of your posts...especially about our friend 'Anna behind the Green Door'. Thank God, Allah, Berlusconi...whoever...that I'm not the only one to have drawn fire from this incendiary little creature. As we speak, I am listening to the Ladytropic's 3rd cycle finish (on the same set of clothes) so that we can begin draping them on various radiators throughout the apartment...and wiping up my spilled glass of water from Anna's most recent door slam.;-);-) It would be great to chat with a native English speaker who has experienced this particular spot firsthand. We have been here just 2 weeks now and found out we were moving to Italy for my work a mere 6 weeks ago...so our Italian is VERY elementary. Take care and thanks again for the laughs!
    Ciao'
    Greg & Elly

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  2. TravelMarxJanuary 17, 2011 at 6:53 PM

    Ah, the Ladytropic. We don't miss that a whole lot, but we do look back fondly on our stay in the apartment. Anna and all. (I like the use of "incendiary little creature" to describe her!) It makes me chuckle to even read about her door slamming. I'm guessing the door is still green and that her schedule hasn't varied much. I loved especially when she got her bike out of that closet space and rode off down the alley. She cut a pretty good figure but more importantly, I could have peace and quiet for an hour or so.

    Congratulations on the move there. If you are staying in Florence, you have lots of language schools to choose from. We went to Scuola Michiavelli (http://www.centromachiavelli.it/) in the Piazza Santo Spirito for a few months and the rest of our language was just getting out there and practicing. We are currently in Italian class a few nights a week (here in Seattle) trying to keep the language exercised a wee bit.

    If you are there for a while in Florence, be sure to plan a few weekend day trips (Pisa, Lucca, Sienna, etc.) by train. Also, here is a list that might be interesting because it lists all the museums major and minor: http://travelmarx.blogspot.com/2008/01/florence-museum-checklist.html. We found that we wanted to do something in city but not go to a touristy spot and there are a number of "smaller" museums that you'll have to yourselves.

    Some off-the-beaten track places:
    http://travelmarx.blogspot.com/2008/01/la-specola-part-ii.html

    http://travelmarx.blogspot.com/2008/04/casa-guidi.html (we had a great 2 hour language lesson with the docent - no one else around)

    http://travelmarx.blogspot.com/2007/12/il-museo-stibbert-firenze.html

    http://travelmarx.blogspot.com/2007/10/marino-marini-museo.html

    If you want to contact us send mail here
    seekies @ live . com
    and we can share more or chat.

    Have fun on Via del Canneto. We are envious :-).

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